April 2007 Archives

When Jeff Keller ordered a Windows Vista upgrade and a wireless-Internet adapter on CircuitCity.com, he expected to save some time, as well as shipping fees, by picking them up at a store near his Oakland, Calif., home.

First came the call that the adapter was out of stock. Then, when he drove to the Circuit City store, he was told that the Vista order had been mistakenly canceled. He waited 20 minutes while a warehouse clerk found another copy of the Microsoft operating system.

Mr. Keller, 30 years old, turned to Best Buy's Web site to order the missing wireless adapter, again choosing the "buy online, pick up in store" option. He encountered another setback when he arrived at the Best Buy store: His item was in stock but hadn't been set aside. He waited while a staffer located the product in an aisle and walked it back to the cash register. The whole transaction took about 15 minutes, he said.

"What's the point of in-store pickup if they don't have the product ready to go when you arrive?" Mr. Keller asked. "Lesson learned: It's faster to just pull it off the shelf yourself."

Retailers are increasingly touting features that let customers order items online, and then pick them up at nearby physical stores. Consumers are offered the ability to save on shipping charges and get orders faster, and retailers find it can boost store sales. Many stores advertise that items will be available for pickup soon after the order is placed, while others take days to transfer online-only items to stores from warehouses.

But as in-store pickup has grown in popularity -- Wal-Mart Stores Inc., J.C. Penney Company Inc., Lowe's Cos. and Payless ShoeSource Inc. have joined the ranks of retailers offering the service -- complaints are mounting over faulty Web information and slow service. And some analysts are cautioning retailers that the process is trickier than it looks.

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Girls Click-and-Drag to Outfit Celebrities on Doll Sites, and Investors Take Notice

Hannah Reichert, an 11-year-old in North Bergen, N.J., likes dressing up dolls, but the worlds of Barbie and Bratz aren't so interesting to her. Instead, she visits Cartoon Doll Emporium, a Web site she discovered while searching for dolls.

"It's just cool," she said of the site, where she can drag and drop shirts, dresses, shoes and jewelry onto drawings of celebrities and cartoon characters, as well as chat with friends in online forums. She doesn't play with actual dolls, but CDE, as she and other users call it, is a regular stop between dinner and bedtime. "I go on there every day," she said.

CDE is one of a handful of virtual doll sites, including Stardoll and The Doll Palace, that have seen traffic surge. The straightforward sites, which evoke traditional paper dolls, have managed to capture an often ignored segment of the online audience: young girls. And investors are taking note: Stardoll, launched by a Finnish doll enthusiast and her son, has received more than $10 million in venture funding from Sequoia Capital and Index Ventures. Meanwhile, the makers of Barbie and Bratz dolls are moving to add new online dress-up offerings.

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(Also appeared on AOL News) (subscription required; contact me for a copy)